Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror
Details by Film
Lady Morgan's Vengeance
Streaming Options
The Blancheville Monster
Streaming Options
The Third Eye
The Witch
Streaming Options
Lady Morgan's Vengeance
Although not as busy in Gothic as forefather Mario Bava, director Massimo Pupillo made three key Italian Gothic titles. Following Terror Creatures from the Grave and the wildcard Bloody Pit of Horror, Lady Morgan's Vengeance was to be his last experiment in horror. It was also his most subtle and romantic film in the genre.
The soom to become Lady Susan Morgan (Barbara Nelli, Double Face) descends into the nightmarish regions of what appears to be Bluebeard's castle when she is married off to sinister family 'friend' Dr. Harold Morgan (Paul Muller, Nightmare Castle). By tragic twist her true love Pierre (Michel Forrain) vanishes, presumed dead, just before they can tie the knot and Dr. Harold is more than happy to step in to provide her with a replacement husband. Once ensconced in her new home, a crumbling Scottish castle, she hears strange voices at night and finds herself unable to escape. Her husband tells her it's all in her head and his maid Lillian isn't much help to her either (Erika Blanc, Kill, Baby... Kill!). What follows involves a conventional gaslighting plot that takes an utterly surreal turn into the unexpected, in true Italian baroque style.
Pupillo's moody black-and-white cinematography has never looked better in this tragic tale of ghosts of love, revenge, and supernatural sadism, now fully restored in 2K from the original camera negative for the first time and presented alongside an array of in-depth extras.
The Blancheville Monster
Director Alberto De Martino would later become known as something of a cult figure in Italian genre film, through titles such as The Killer Is on the Phone, The Antichrist and Holocaust 2000. Molded in a more classic horror style in comparison, The Blancheville Monster is unlike much of his later work, featuring layer upon layer of the influence of American Gothic master Edgar Allan Poe.
Emilie de Blancheville (Ombrette Colli, Gladiator of Rome) return home to her brother Roderic (Gerard Tichy, Hatchet for the Honeymoon) to find the family obsessed with an ancestral curse, including the deformed father, who lurks up in the tower. What's more, they've come to believe that if the can kill Emilie before her twenty-first birthday, they might be freed. And, with just five days to go, the race is on to find out whether she can survive the machinations of her messed-up, perverse family.
A tale of domestic terror and madness that gives an Italian twist to Poe's classic themes (recently re-popularized by the films of Roger Corman), Arrow Video is proud to present The BLancheville Monster, fully restored in 2K from the original camera negative for the first time and presented alongside an array of in-depth extras.
The Third Eye
Taking a large pinch of Psycho's Gothic perversity, Mino Guerrini's lesser known The Third Eye weaves a wicked tale of families too close for comfort - loaded, Italian-style, with ample doses of lust and necrophilia.
Django star Franco Nero - in one of his very first roles - inhabits every inch of the Norman Bates persona, complete with a hobby in taxidermy. Mino, an incredibly rich but sheltered Count, lives in the shadow of a domineering mother. His troubles are heightened when his fiancee Laura (Erika Blanc, Kill, Baby... Kill!) dies in a car accident after her vehicle is tampered with by a love rival. Unable to cope with the grief, Mino retrieves Laura's body from the wreckage, using his taxidermy skills to stuff and preserve her corpse, before going on to lure assorted prostitutes back to the house, with the aim of sleeping with them next to Laura's stuffed body. Things get even more complicated when Laura's twin sister turns up, wanting to know what happened and why her sister's body was never found.
Daring for its time and later loosely remade in grand guignol style by Joe D'Amato as Beyond the Darkness, The Third Eye is packed full of Italy's trademark Gothic perversion, now fully restored in 2K from the original camera negative for the first time, alongside an array of in-depth extras.n
The Witch
One of the most unique films to come out of the latter end of the heyday of the Italian Gothic cycle, Damiano Damiani's The Witch takes an avant-garde approach to the interpreting genre, mixing in elements of free jazz and hints of psychedelia and the occult for good measure.
Loosely based on Carols Fuentes' hypnotic novella Aura, Damiani's film follows the plight of playboy historian Sergio (Richard Johnson, The Haunting, Zombie Flesh Eaters), who answers the advert from the wealthy Consuelo Lorente (Sarah Ferrati) to take care of her library and sort out her late husband's erotic memoirs. Initially tempted to stay by the old woman's strikingly beautiful daughter, Aura (Rosanna Schiaffino, The Killer Reserved Nine Seats), Segio subsequently finds himself unable to leave, and that he's just one of a number of desperate men who have fallen into a honey trap.
Also featuring familiar faces Gian Maria Volonte (A Fistful of Dollars) and Ivan Rassimov (Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key) in fascinating early roles, The Witch dazzles anew in this brand new, exclusive 2K from the original camera negative, accompanied by an array of in-depth extras.
Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Supplements
- Brand new video introduction by Italian film devotee Mark Thompson Ashworth
- Brand new video introduction by Italian film devotee Mark Thompson Ashworth
- Brand new video introduction by Italian film devotee Mark Thompson Ashworth
- Brand new video introduction by Italian film devotee Mark Thompson Ashworth
- Limited edition 80-page book featuring new writing on the films by Roberto Curti, Rob Talbot, Jerome Reuter, Rod Barnett and Kimberly Lindbergs
- Brand new audio commentary by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- Brand new audio commentary by filmmaker and film historian Paul Anthony Nelson
- Brand new audio commentary by author and critic Rachael Nisbet
- Brand new audio commentary by author and producer Kat Ellinger
- Fold-out double-sided poster
- Brand new video essay on the film by author and producer Kat Ellinger
- Brand new video essay on the film by writer and pop culture historian Keith Allison
- Brand new video essay on the film by author and filmmaker Lindsay Hallam
- Brand new video essay on the film by author and academic Miranda Corcoran
- Brand new video interview with actress Erika Blanc
- Brand new video interview with author and filmmaker Antonio Tentori
- Newly edited video interview with actress Erika Blanc
- Brand new video interview with author and filmmaker Antonio Tentori
- Newly edited video interview with actor Paul Muller
- Opening credits for the US release of the film
- Image gallery
- Image gallery
- Newly edited audio interview with director Massimo Pupillo
- Trailer
- The complete original cineromanzo, published in Suspense in April 1971
- Image gallery
- Trailer
- Image gallery